(a) For purposes of determining the creditworthiness of a borrower for RUS cost-of-money, the Administrator shall assume that the loan, if made, would bear interest at the Treasury rate on the date of determination as described in paragraph (b) of this section. If the Treasury rate exceeds 7 percent, the interest rate used to determine eligibility for the RUS cost-of-money loan will be 7 percent.

(b) The 30-year Treasury rate will be used in all feasibility studies for loans with a final maturity of at least 30 years. A straight-line interpolation between other Treasury rates will be used to determine the rate used in feasibility studies for loans with final maturities of less than 30 years.

(c) The Treasury rate will be obtained each Tuesday, or as soon as possible thereafter, from the Federal Reserve. The rate for the current week, from the column labeled “This week” in the Federal Reserve statistical release, will be used from that Wednesday through the following Tuesday.

(d) As used in this section, the “date of determination” means the date of the feasibility study used in support of the loan recommendation.